Narendra Modi government discards plan to train 500 mn youths in new skills; industry worries over ill-effects of move

Narendra Modi government discards plan to train 500 mn youths in new skills; industry worries over ill-effects of move

Modi government in its first year planned to train 10.5 million people but was only able to train 7.5 million, missing the target by four million. 11.7 million people were trained in the second and third year of the Modi government.

PM Modi’s government has said that it will delink the figure of providing skill training to 500 million. (Source: PIB)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has said that it will delink the figure of providing skill training to 500 million people from the overall skill development plan. Skill Development ministry officials in a press conference held in Delhi refused to provide a new figure to Prime Minister Modi’s plan of imparting skill training to the youth. The ministry officials also refused to list the number the 22 departments and ministries will now be chasing. Rajesh Aggarwal, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Skill Development said, ”We don’t want to chase numbers, we are delinking figures from the scheme,” Mint reported.

Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Skill Development Minister, said ”The system is demand driven and not supply driven.” The ministry has not been able to meet its goals of providing skill development training for the past few years. Between 2011 and 2015 the ministry missed its skill development target in four of five years. It was only in 2013-14 that the government was able to meet its target, according to the Mint.

Modi government in its first year planned to train 10.5 million people but was only able to train 7.5 million, missing the target by four million. 11.7 million people were trained in the second and third year of the Modi government.

Rudy said the aim of the government is to provide quality training through the program. Rudy said, ”We need to be careful as our actions will have an effect on the future of the youth”.

The government says they are working to strengthen the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and working on a franchise model in order to provide efficient workers to the industry, Mint reported.

Private players say that the government should not delink numbers from the project as this could have an ill-effect on the overall plan. Mayank Kumar, managing director of UpGrad said, ”The government may want to decouple jobs from training”.

Rudy had said that the goal of his ministry was to impart training and not to provide jobs. The minister was unable to tie a figure to how many of the 11.7 million trained in the last two years are currently employed, as reported in the Mint.